Montanya Distillers thriving in new Crested Butte home

Karen and Brice Hoskin celebrate the first lighting of their new rum still at their Montanya Distillers tasting room in downtown Crested Butte.

Brice Hoskin leans down and sticks a lighter into the base of a giant copper kettle.
“This is kind of a big deal. The inaugural lighting,” he says as a ring of blue flame flowers beneath the rum-making still, one of two new stills that will quadruple the Hoskin family’s output of Montanya Rum.

How would you like your rum? Montanya's Crested Butte tasting room serves it more than 50 ways.

The tasting room has thrived in Crested Butte and the Hoskins have adapted quickly to the valley’s funky vibe, hosting music and inviting a local bakery to make bagels in its commercial kitchen area. Daily tours – for tourists and visiting liquor makers – offer inside peeks at how Montanya crafts its rums. (Hint: carmelized, locally-sourced honey added in the final stage and rum aged in vanilla-tinted whiskey barrels.)

In the town’s painfully slow shoulder seasons, the Hoskins keep their employees hopping with rum-making and distribution.
“Nobody at Montanya is getting laid off next week,” said Karen as the sun outside her bar roasted the spring snow.

Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.